whispers will get loud
by xfucktheglasses
Summary: On the edge of glory. —SasuSakuKibaIno.


This is written in nonlinear format. Pay attention, please (:

Happy birthday to my beautiful Sara. It's about time you caught up, you slowpoke, jesus you always keep us waitin', huh? Take a shot for me, princess.

**whispers will get loud**

(365)

Sasuke stands on the fire escape of his apartment. His hands are stuffed in the pockets of his pajama pants, hair a mess and with an unlit cigarette in between his lips.

Thin arms wrap around his bare torso, a cheek presses against the space between his shoulder blades. The smirk on his lips is soft around the edges, boyish and at peace.

The sun rises.

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(17)

"So where the hell did the others go?"

Sasuke leans against the car, arms crossed in front of his chest. His head is still pulsing with a beat that he couldn't really hear, anymore, and—god—he's actually kind of hungry right now. He groans, lightly, throwing his head back and half-grinning at the feeling of being drunk, the wind letting it be known that he can probably fly right then, if he wants to.

"This shit is bogus," Kiba growls, lifting himself up to sit on the hood of the car. "We can't even get inside the fucking car."

"I'm drunk."

He feels Kiba's eyes turn to him and Sasuke snaps an eye open, tilting his head a bit to stare right back at him.

Kiba's face is serious for a second before a shit-eating grin appears on his lips, "Me too."

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(281)

Kiba is quiet, now.

And while he never really was the _loudest_ of the five, he was normally more talkative than he is now. Whenever he shows up, that is.

Kiba's just never really around, anymore.

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(304)

Kiba stuffs some clothes into a large duffel bag.

The room is dark and the sky outside is probably darker. He ignores everything and walks to his computer desk, makes to grab his cellphone but his hand pauses in the air. Kiba stares at the device with hooded eyes, lips set in a frown and thoughts clouding his mind. He makes to grab it, again, pulling it from its charger and turning around to walk to the door.

He throws the device on his bed before walking out of the room.

The apartment is quiet and no one is protesting; a feral grin cracks the dry skin of his lips, at the thought.

Kiba opens the front door and pauses when he sees her standing in front of him, a duffel bag of her own hanging off her shoulder.

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(49)

He reaches over and turns the music up, a little. His back aches from how stiff he is and he hates how nonchalant Kiba is even if the air around them is thick with something stupid and annoying. It's been weeks since it's gotten like this whenever they are alone and Sasuke hates it. He glares, clenching his jaw and turning the music up a bit more.

Kiba stares out the window, sitting in a messy slouch and appreciating the music playing out from the speakers.

After a while of drowning in the awkward silence, Sasuke makes a wild u-turn and parks his car into an abandoned alleyway.

"Dude, what the fuck."

"I don't know where we're going."

Kiba turns to him with a deadpan look, as if the answer to that is the most obvious thing. "To go get the others…"

"Yeah."

"What the fuck."

Sasuke shrugs and leans back in his seat.

"This is why I don't let you drive," Kiba mutters, shifting around and glaring at him from the corner of his eyes. "Move outta the way, then! Jesus fucking Christ, you're an idiot—well?"

Sasuke closes his eyes, half smirking at how annoyed the idiot is. But Kiba keeps muttering things under his breath, only saying aloud whatever he wants him to hear. Sasuke shifts a bit, crossing his arms behind his head.

"Suck my dick," he says, offhandedly.

It goes silent.

Sasuke's eyes snap open as he feels and hears his zipper go undone.

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(92)

They're all sitting in Sasuke's living room.

Everyone is there, including Karin and her two friends. But this is something normal—as much as Sasuke sometimes dislikes it, his circle of friends and Karin's always intersect and if Suigetsu continues to give his sister that look that she seems to be returning, he is going to kill them both.

It is enough to make someone like Ino grin, cutely.

Seriously, her best friend's job was to make her brother's life a living hell and she does it well when she includes someone like Suigetsu.

But Ino likes to look at people like Kiba.

Not as loud as a crowd made out of Naruto, Tenten and Suigetsu, but still loud nonetheless. And he's very pretty—but there are marks on his throat, letting people know that he's off the market; or at least halfway off and it makes her look away, to the TV, pursing her lips and thinking about how two plus two sums up to four.

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(146)

He slams him against the wall and Sasuke sneers at him, ignoring the way the air is knocked out of him.

Kiba's eyes are dark and angry and it makes Sasuke smirk with a challenge.

Hands are on the buckle of his belt, fingers are pulling the zipper of his jeans down.

Sasuke hisses and bites his throat just as Kiba's hand goes inside his boxers.

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(172)

The engine dies and all five get out of the car; Sasuke slips a cigarette in between his lips, his eyes slowly turning to the house on the left, watching as men carried boxes after boxes inside the place.

"Hey you gots a new neighbor," Suigetsu comments, sitting on the front steps of Sasuke's porch.

The house has been sold for about two months, already; Sasuke had been positive someone had already moved in. Not that it matters, he shrugs, turning to face his friends as they made a circle in front of his house. He pats his pockets for his lighter, groaning as the memory of losing it two nights ago returns.

But a silver one is thrust his way and Sasuke takes it, his eyes locking with Kiba.

He flicks it on, head tilting to watch as someone—perhaps his new neighbor—comes out of the house to stand on the porch. Her hands are on her hips, hair choppy and short and pink. She's wearing shorts and a t-shirt for the warm weather and when she turns to spare him a glance, her eyes are the rarest shade of green.

The fire to the lighter misses his cigarette and Sasuke does not notice.

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(299)

"Kiba?"

He grunts.

Ino bites her lip and double thinks her decision. But she squares her shoulders a second later, scoffing at herself for actually wavering. Yamanaka Ino does not waver.

"Is… it possible for you to drive me to the mall?"

He looks up at her, eyes squinted behind the smoke coming out of his cigarette. He looks angry and sad and annoyed and everything that Kiba is not supposed to be and Ino fights the urge to hug him. She settles for staring at him in the eye, an eyebrow raised and a hand reaching up to tuck some of her blond hair behind her ear.

"My car broke down some days go, remember?"

Kiba grunts again and stands up. Ino follows and figures things out.

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(30)

Sasuke wakes up with a head-splitting hangover.

He groans and rolls over on his bed, eyes half-opening and staring at the wall. He sits up, his body aching and his throat pulsing.

He stares at himself in the mirror and counts all the purple bruises on his throat and smirks.

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(202)

She becomes instant friends with Uchiha Karin.

Sakura sits on the armchair, criss-cross, hands on her laps and watching them all interact. The blond boy keeps texting someone on his cellphone, the purple-eyed one is having some sort of eye-sex with Karin, the pale eyed guy was listening to that Tenten girl talk and their body language was relaxed and knowing and the blond girl kept turning to look up towards the stairs that led to the second floor.

She smiles at them, talking here and there when they ask her questions and it isn't long before Sakura feels a bit more comfortable.

At some point, two more come down the stairs, one sits in between the blond boy and the purple-eyed one, sparing her a glance and a crooked grin.

The other one—Karin's brother—pauses behind one of the couches and stares at her, the tip of his tongue peeking as he licks his bottom lip.

Sakura tries to smile at him, but it's not until he gives her a promising smirk that she blushes and looks away.

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(215)

Sasuke looms over her and he swears he's never felt this way before.

It was a feeling of wanting to keep this girl by his side forever—only his—establish it, make it known. He's only known her for about a week or two and he knows as much as her name being Haruno Sakura and she's moved to Konoha from Suna. But he had been instantly attracted to her, and he knows—god, he knows—that getting to know her was going to drive him up the wall in all the right ways.

Her nose crinkles, lips tilting in a smile as she shoves him away.

"I'm not that easy, asshole," she laughs, looking away from him.

She'd been waiting for Karin to come out so they could head to downtown Konoha, but when the door open the one that came out had been Sasuke and she would not lie of her heart had not skipped a beat or two.

"Shame," he muttered, lips barely moving.

Sakura snapped her head towards him, eyes wide and glaring.

Sasuke pressed his lips against hers.

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(74)

The room is crowded, but all they could really see is each other. Sasuke stands by the doors of the living room, a party cup filled with rum and coke in his hands. He's watching everyone around; he knew some people and others he's never seen in his life, but Kiba seems to always to find his way in his line of vision.

He's dancing with Ino, bodies against each other and moving to the beat.

Sasuke quirks an eyebrow, bringing his cup to his lips and taking a gulp.

There is an unspoken—dead and nonexistent to everyone but them—tension in the air; it shatters when their eyes meet and Sasuke swallows, Adam's apple bobbling in protest. He looks away to a girl that poked at his arm; Sasuke was not like his friend and did not like to mingle as much with the opposite gender; not _as much_, at least.

But he smirks at the girl, eyes flashing as she grins at him. Sasuke smirks down at her, his eyes turning to find Kiba, smirk still intact.

Kiba's eyes narrow and continues to dance with Ino.

Sasuke's skin burns with annoyance and allows the girl to take his hand and lead him away.

Later, in the darkness of the night, Kiba smashes his lips with his—feral and angry and when Sasuke wakes up the following day, there is a cut on the left side of his lower lip and he does not remember how it got there.

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(236)

"We should stop."

Kiba looks up from the cards in his hand, brow furrowing with a bit of confusion. "But you're actually winning, douche."

Sasuke looks exasperated and uncomfortable. He sucks at his teeth, looking away and swallowing with force; Kiba watches his Adam's apple protest. "No. I mean we should stop."

He waves a hand in the air, offhandedly, and Kiba gets it right away.

Something clicks—right then and everything makes a lot more sense. Kiba stares at him with a blanket of indifferent in his eyes, lips tilted into a neutral frown; but inside he's housing a tingling sensation of millions of ants marching up and down his body, a sense of a loss of something that was worthwhile settling but it's stupid.

It's stupid because it's just Sasuke.

Just fucking Sasuke.

He's not fucking important; not like that, he's just _Sasuke_.

Kiba scoffs and shrugs a shoulder, "Whatever, man."

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(328)

There is a knock on the door and Ino walks out of the small kitchen to open it.

She looks up at Kiba, he's looking at her with half a sheepish grin—an apology for forgetting his keys. Ino smiles at him and lets him in. Iwa is very warm—hot. Not as scorching as Suna, but still hot. They've made quite a living in such a small amount of time and the dingy apartment actually feels a little like home.

Ino is quite satisfied.

"I made cookies," she says, walking back into the kitchen and listening to him follow.

She grabs at the warm tray turning around and almost gasping when the tray hits Kiba's chest. She had not expected him to be so close; she looks up at him from under her blond lashes.

He's looming over her and Ino slowly raises an eyebrow, half paying attention to how he grabs at a cookie, never breaking their eye connection, and takes a bite.

Kiba moves closer…

…But Ino moves away.

It was still… It still wasn't right.

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(251)

There is a party at Sasuke's house. His father's seventh year as chief of the police force.

The house is packed with people Sasuke knew—cops that have stopped him and his friends on more than one occasion, giving them knowing eyes and promises of passing a word down to the chief, letting him know what his youngest son was up to _now_. But mostly, his relatives stand around, mingling and drinking and talking; even Itachi has come over from Oto for the occasion.

Sasuke invites Sakura and it is almost like a date. They stand close together, their hands touching—every inch of them bumping into each other, their eyes saying what they wouldn't really be able to say aloud.

Sometime during the night, Sasuke throws an arm around her shoulders and introduces her to his parents. He leans towards her, whispering something in her ear and she shivers at the way his lips feather against the sensitive skin, her eyes shining.

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(340)

Sasuke stands on the balcony of his new apartment, an unlit cigarette in between his lips and a lighter that is not his in his hands.

He looks at the setting sun; the city is lighting up. He flicks the lighter open, flicks the fire on and stares.

Sighing, he lets it die out.

It's not the only thing he's allowed to end.

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fin.


End file.
